Grover Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 Also a question about LLATL. I decided DS is ready for some "proper" novel study / discussion, so I gave him The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and asked him to read two chapters while I was working, so we could discuss them later. He came bouncing in an hour later saying he'd finished the book. I though, yeah right, and proceeded to take him through the discussion questions for the first two chapters (so I could show him he needed to read more slowly / carefully). We spent the next half hour or so working through the entire book, he could answer questions, discuss themes, etc. So there goes my plan for the next couple of weeks of sharing the book. Sooo... does this count as a novel study if it took an afternoon? Should I just carry on with this, letting them happen in whatever time span they take, or should I encourage re-reading, more discussion and um... not sure what else! And the other half of this question is: I quite like the look of LLATL. Is it a good idea with accelerated learners? He got one thing wrong on the Orange pretest, and about half wrong on the purple one, so would you put him in orange or purple? Is he too young for the books used in Purple / likely to find upcoming themes in later books too mature if he starts that far ahead? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2smartones Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 Sounds good to me! Perhaps the book was too easy or the questions weren't deep enough, but yes, I understand what you're saying. My older son does the same thing, and it drives me nuts. I've never been an avid reader (dh is), so eating through books that quickly sort of freaked me out at first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grover Posted September 18, 2012 Author Share Posted September 18, 2012 We'll try The Hobbit this morning... y'know, the book I had put aside for October, <sigh>! Does anyone have any knowledge about the LLATL thing? I'm not sure whether to go with purple or orange, mostly because I don't want him to hit books that aren't right for his age too soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunriseiz Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 Also a question about LLATL. I decided DS is ready for some "proper" novel study / discussion, so I gave him The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and asked him to read two chapters while I was working, so we could discuss them later. He came bouncing in an hour later saying he'd finished the book. I though, yeah right, and proceeded to take him through the discussion questions for the first two chapters (so I could show him he needed to read more slowly / carefully). We spent the next half hour or so working through the entire book, he could answer questions, discuss themes, etc. So there goes my plan for the next couple of weeks of sharing the book. Sooo... does this count as a novel study if it took an afternoon? Should I just carry on with this, letting them happen in whatever time span they take, or should I encourage re-reading, more discussion and um... not sure what else! I'm no help (sorry!), but I may have missed how old your son is. This would be how it happens at our house with DD8.... Sigh.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YourFidgetyFriend Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 I'm having the same issue. I'm a book in a day type of person, so I should have been more prepared. I'm trying to find the balance between reading times and discussion times now. We are only on our 3rd assigned book, so I don't have any suggestions, but you are not alone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grover Posted September 19, 2012 Author Share Posted September 19, 2012 Oh, duh, sorry, I thought he was in my signature. He's 5. I'm glad to hear I'm not alone... but I hope someone who's BTDT can give me some good ideas! FWIW he's disappeared with The Hobbit so I don't think I'll see him again today :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quark Posted September 19, 2012 Share Posted September 19, 2012 Oh, duh, sorry, I thought he was in my signature. He's 5. I'm glad to hear I'm not alone... but I hope someone who's BTDT can give me some good ideas! FWIW he's disappeared with The Hobbit so I don't think I'll see him again today :lol: I stopped planning novel studies ages ago so please read this with that in mind. DS whipped through the entire Narnia series twice at that age. And a graphic version of the unabridged Hobbit three times. He wasn't interested in a novel study at that age so I am no help there. I did a quick preview of LLATL (can't remember which level) and it just seemed very obvious at the time that he won't like it so again no help, sorry. FWIW, I still don't make him discuss or study a novel unless he is interested to go deeper. It really seems counter intuitive for the kind of learner he is. My goals perhaps were very different? I was happy to let him devour books at his pace and style. Around the age of 6, he started to show more interest by periodically bringing up a story or a character and I used a narration cube to help us go deeper. When he started showing interest in psychology and behavior, we linked characters in novels (e.g. Jekyll and Hyde or Don Quixote or Ahab) to certain behaviors and it was a nice tie-in. And we relate settings in novels to what we know about the history of the time or take it as an opportunity to research the author's bio. I often wish I could be more organized about reading classics chronologically but this haphazard read-discuss-and-connect-with-other-subjects or read-ignore-discussions-for-now method seems to work very well for us. My objective really is to just enrich him as much as possible with well-written books without worrying too much about the mechanics just yet. But that could just be because he is more of a STEM guy. I let literature to be one of our fun subjects. I strew lots of unabridged classics, let him read them at his pace and offer discussions only if he wants them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted September 19, 2012 Share Posted September 19, 2012 I wasn't impressed with LLATL when I looked at it for DD when she was your son's age. What I've found works best is simply "Read and talk"-she reads, we talk. Scholastic does have good guides for various books on their $1 sales now and then, and if you google almost any frequently studied book, you'll find discussion questions teachers have put up. Many adult level books (which usually aren't any harder than The Hobbit) now come with "book club guides" as well-and while most of them aren't appropriate for kids, I've found a couple from the library that I've read and then passed on to DD for "Read and talk". We've also been on Shakespeare for much of the past year, mostly because one of the members of our homeschool group has a great relationship with the TN Shakespeare Company and has been able to get our kids into the "school group" showings and discussions designed for high schools of their plays, which got DD turned on to reading and enjoying Shakespeare. I've found a lot of gems on SL and Ambleside Online. The SL advanced 2 readers (which are actually on about a 5th-6th grade reading level, for the most part) were good for DD at 5, with only a few exceptions (there are a couple which DD simply couldn't handle because animals were being injured/killed), and she's doing SL core 6 this year, again with some filtering. They're not as challenging for her as some books are, but they're good books and she's enjoying them. Off-topic -do you have a regional challenge that leads up to the World Ed games? The American one is coming up next month, and I thought about your son, but I don't know if it's limited to US residents or not. DD is looking forward to it-she's been practicing hard on mathletics to get her speed up to "Human calculator" or whatever the fastest one is so she can win at something other than Science this year :). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted September 19, 2012 Share Posted September 19, 2012 We use and enjoy LLATL, but I don't know that I'd recommend it for a child that advanced... it is not really known for accelerated learners, more thought of as too light/easy... but if you think it would work, I'd go for the higher level rather than lower and just go more slowly if you need to (or if you can!) FWIW my DD has done Red & now most of Yellow at age 7, she's not gifted, and it's been easy for her. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grover Posted September 20, 2012 Author Share Posted September 20, 2012 Off-topic -do you have a regional challenge that leads up to the World Ed games? The American one is coming up next month, and I thought about your son, but I don't know if it's limited to US residents or not. DD is looking forward to it-she's been practicing hard on mathletics to get her speed up to "Human calculator" or whatever the fastest one is so she can win at something other than Science this year :). we just had the national maths version - I don't think they do spelling and science but I could be wrong. He won his year level and the two above, and made the top 100 for 5 - 18 year olds... woohoo! We use and enjoy LLATL, but I don't know that I'd recommend it for a child that advanced... it is not really known for accelerated learners, more thought of as too light/easy... but if you think it would work, I'd go for the higher level rather than lower and just go more slowly if you need to (or if you can!) FWIW my DD has done Red & now most of Yellow at age 7, she's not gifted, and it's been easy for her. Good luck! ugh, that's not good news. He hates WWE (levels 1,2 and 3), we're using IEW which he tolerates, nearly finished with AAS (will complete level 6 before the end of the year). I'm contemplating Classical Writing. I have MCT but TBH I don't really "get it" so I haven't tried it with him. I was hoping LLATL might be a solution - something that draws all this stuff together so he's getting regular practice and also continuing his love of reading. thank you for your feedback and ideas... I guess we'll just carry on reading and talking and enjoying books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted September 20, 2012 Share Posted September 20, 2012 we just had the national maths version - I don't think they do spelling and science but I could be wrong. He won his year level and the two above, and made the top 100 for 5 - 18 year olds... woohoo! ugh, that's not good news. He hates WWE (levels 1,2 and 3), we're using IEW which he tolerates, nearly finished with AAS (will complete level 6 before the end of the year). I'm contemplating Classical Writing. I have MCT but TBH I don't really "get it" so I haven't tried it with him. I was hoping LLATL might be a solution - something that draws all this stuff together so he's getting regular practice and also continuing his love of reading. thank you for your feedback and ideas... I guess we'll just carry on reading and talking and enjoying books. Sorry! I didn't want to talk you out of it, I would advise you to read through the scope & sequence info on the website and go with your gut. We have enjoyed it but we'll be giving MCT a go next year instead, because while DD gets it, she is bored! Especially the book selections, easy peasy. We're also doing Classical Writing, we did/are doing the primers this year - because I felt that while DD was ready for Aesop content-wise, she could use some work on writing stamina first. I'm pleased, we've really enjoyed the primers this year, and while some of it is still 'too easy' (a common refrain from this child!) I think she'll be well prepared for Aesop. I actually have some Aesop materials around (2nd hand deal) and I would say that it is probably a better fit for advanced kids, much meatier than LLATL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grover Posted September 20, 2012 Author Share Posted September 20, 2012 We're also doing Classical Writing, we did/are doing the primers this year - because I felt that while DD was ready for Aesop content-wise, she could use some work on writing stamina first. I'm pleased, we've really enjoyed the primers this year, and while some of it is still 'too easy' (a common refrain from this child!) I think she'll be well prepared for Aesop. I actually have some Aesop materials around (2nd hand deal) and I would say that it is probably a better fit for advanced kids, much meatier than LLATL. ooh that's good news, as I'm picking up my secondhand copy of Aesop tomorrow! I like the S&S of LLATL, just not sure which to choose. He's allergic to writing. Or at least it brings him out in whines. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted September 20, 2012 Share Posted September 20, 2012 Hmm, well maybe don't totally discount LLATL then. I've found that in yellow (which they bill as 3rd grade but I'd guess 2nd) that there is not a whole lot of writing - probably not more than 4 or 5 sentences at most a couple of times in the week. The lessons are quite short, to the point, and IMO effective - perhaps quite a good fit for an advanced youngster? We have certainly enjoyed it. But I see in Orange that one of the books is a Boxcar children one, that looks far too easy for a child devouring the hobbit IMO - however I've found the literature books quite easy to swap out. It is nice and all combined, open and go, easy to use. I don't know, all I can say is to reiterate going over the S&S and go with your gut! Aesop looked meaty enough that I wanted another workbook just for me! But then again my grammar education was severely lacking, I've learned plenty from LLATL ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beaners Posted September 20, 2012 Share Posted September 20, 2012 Off-topic -do you have a regional challenge that leads up to the World Ed games? The American one is coming up next month, and I thought about your son, but I don't know if it's limited to US residents or not. DD is looking forward to it-she's been practicing hard on mathletics to get her speed up to "Human calculator" or whatever the fastest one is so she can win at something other than Science this year :). Continuing the offshoot here, do you have a link for this? I can find the link for the World Ed games when I google, but not this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunriseiz Posted September 20, 2012 Share Posted September 20, 2012 He's allergic to writing. Or at least it brings him out in whines. :lol: Being a little further down the road, I might guess some of this is age related. Writing is still not dd's favorite thing to do (unless it's a story she's creating!), but it's much better than it was at 5. From your description, your ds sounds much like dd at that age. We are only now really starting grammar, which may or may not be the best decision, but I didn't want to suck all of the joy out of reading and writing for her. We just worked to provide lots and lots of books (no easy task as you know!). Now, had she wanted to do grammar, I would have been all over it, but it just wasn't the case. On another note, we just recently discovered GrammarLand (audio and book) and she and ds6 looove it. That might give you a more gentle option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted September 20, 2012 Share Posted September 20, 2012 Continuing the offshoot here, do you have a link for this? I can find the link for the World Ed games when I google, but not this. http://www.mathletics.com/americanmathchallenge/ We subscribe to Mathletics, which is where I saw it advertised. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beaners Posted September 20, 2012 Share Posted September 20, 2012 http://www.mathletics.com/americanmathchallenge/ We subscribe to Mathletics, which is where I saw it advertised. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grover Posted September 20, 2012 Author Share Posted September 20, 2012 Being a little further down the road, I might guess some of this is age related. Writing is still not dd's favorite thing to do (unless it's a story she's creating!), but it's much better than it was at 5. From your description, your ds sounds much like dd at that age. We are only now really starting grammar, which may or may not be the best decision, but I didn't want to suck all of the joy out of reading and writing for her. We just worked to provide lots and lots of books (no easy task as you know!). Now, had she wanted to do grammar, I would have been all over it, but it just wasn't the case. On another note, we just recently discovered GrammarLand (audio and book) and she and ds6 looove it. That might give you a more gentle option. thanks for this. I think I will go ahead and try it out - it's only $30 if it turns out to be wrong. I like that he can do it self paced so he can move on as he likes. We LOVED Grammarland... he's reading it again on his own (for the 3rd or 4th time) now... he keeps learning something new. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunriseiz Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 thanks for this. I think I will go ahead and try it out - it's only $30 if it turns out to be wrong. I like that he can do it self paced so he can move on as he likes. We LOVED Grammarland... he's reading it again on his own (for the 3rd or 4th time) now... he keeps learning something new. That's great! You know your child. I have plenty that I have bought that we used right away and some we are still not ready for. I think it's par for the course. :) I wish we had found Grammarland sooner. DS6 is enjoying it too. Someone posted worksheets to go with it. I'll see if I can find them for you. They are simple, but really good imho. DS6 is not as advanced as DD, but he thinks it's fun! ETA: http://dontneednoeducation.blogspot.com/2010/01/grammar-land-worksheets.html HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grover Posted September 21, 2012 Author Share Posted September 21, 2012 That's great! You know your child. I have plenty that I have bought that we used right away and some we are still not ready for. I think it's par for the course. :) I wish we had found Grammarland sooner. DS6 is enjoying it too. Someone posted worksheets to go with it. I'll see if I can find them for you. They are simple, but really good imho. DS6 is not as advanced as DD, but he thinks it's fun! ETA: http://dontneednoeducation.blogspot.com/2010/01/grammar-land-worksheets.html HTH! thanks... we did the worksheets together the first time we went through - they are such a great resource. I guess I just need to stop worrying about things and let him explore on his own. It's just that I feel like I should be *doing* something sometimes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunriseiz Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 thanks... we did the worksheets together the first time we went through - they are such a great resource. I guess I just need to stop worrying about things and let him explore on his own. It's just that I feel like I should be *doing* something sometimes! Well I am really late to the party, lol! :D I get the part about *doing*. My situation is probably different from yours, but I've had to let go of a lot of doing, and once I got there, it's been ok. Try the curriculum you ordered and see how it goes. Otherwise, I'd let him read! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grover Posted September 21, 2012 Author Share Posted September 21, 2012 I get the part about *doing*. My situation is probably different from yours, but I've had to let go of a lot of doing, and once I got there, it's been ok. Try the curriculum you ordered and see how it goes. Otherwise, I'd let him read! yes, I am learning to "let go"... I'd just like to let go with some structure, lol! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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